Tuesday, June 17, 2014

You’ve spent 2 hours on that prospecting email. You desperately want this client. You’ve been chasing this company for a year now. You finally know they have a need. You know they have a big problem you can fix. You’ve gotten the CTO’s email address. She’s the person that can make the decision. Everything is teed up and ready to go. You hit send and wait — your email is now in email hell. A labyrinth of confusion, speculation, insecurity and doubt. You know the feeling I’m talking about. This is how email has been for the best 20 years.

This wait is the most excruciating part of selling. We find ourselves caught in this horrific waiting game wondering, did they get the email. Did they read it. When did they read it? Did they pass it on to anyone? Is anyone paying attention?

It’s the worst feeling ever and the worst place a sales person can be. But now, Yesware solves this problem.

Yesware is a Google plugin that allows you to track your emails, attachments and clicks. The waiting is over. When your email is opened, regardless of by who, a notification pops up letting you know that your email has been read, how many times it’s been read and it tells you who is reading it. As a sales person, this info is invaluable.

Add Yesware to your email workflow everything changes. You know if your prospect read it, when she read it and if she forwarded it anyone. You also know if she read it more than once and if she clicked on a link or opened an attachment. With this information you can time your calls or send a follow up email, moving the conversation along and be more productive. The point, Yesware shines a light into what was once a black hole.

Yesware has a number of features that make managing your email correspondence easier and more effective.

Track Emails – This is the most common feature and the one you’ll use most. Simply put, as shared above, it allows you to see who’s reading your emails and when they read them.
Track Clicks – Did you point someone to a website, a blog post or a online document? This killer feature lets you know if the recipient actually clicked on the link. Now you can stop worrying if your prospect is actually looking at stuff you want them to.
Attachments – Like clicks and emails, send an attachment and know if your prospects are actually reading the information you want them to read.
Remind Me – This slick little feature reminds you about an email you sent. If you’re looking for a way to be reminded to follow up with someone right in your mail client, this is the feature for you. You can also set it to remind you if your recipient doesn’t read your email. I love this feature. If you’re prospect doesn’t read your email, you’ve sent a reminder and you’ll get notified. This way you can send the email again without fear you’re pestering them.
Templates – How many times do you feel like your sending out the same email over and over? Templates allow you to create a stored prewritten list of emails for different situations; prospecting, follow up, support, products etc. It’s a great time saver and allows for A/B testing. Find out which emails get the best response.
Salesforce/CRM sync – This little feature lets you sync your emails with your CRM. Send an email and have it automatically added to Salesforce. Yeah, I know. You’re thinking what I’m thinking. Less time logging shit in the CRM and more time selling. Amen!
Mail Merge – This feature let’s you send personalized emails to up to 200 people at once. Don’t wait for marketing to get out a bunch of emails, do it yourself. Combined with templates and remind me, this feature will turn up your game.
Yesware is a great tool and a must use for sales people. My only complaint with Yesware or tracking is that it’s NOT necessary for every email and I find myself cluttering my tracking stats and tracked emails with unnecessary emails. If I’m not careful, I’m tracking common emails and then getting notices on emails I’ve sent to teammates, my daughters, customer service etc. It’s a pain in the ass. Yesware has a visible “checkbox” that allows you to turn it off before you hit send, but I still forget and it drives me crazy.

Here’s the deal, sales is becoming increasingly more complex. We need as many tools as possible at our exposure to help us sell better and Yesware is one of those tools. I use Yesware everyday. It’s makes a huge difference in how I use email and how I engage with the people I email.

Yesware is one of those tools that make a difference. It’s light, unintrusive and fits right into your existing work flow, a must for any tool as far as I am concerned. If you’re not tracking your emails, you’re just missing out and wasting time unnecessary. Stop being stubborn.